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Wikileaks On ‘Red’ Notice

Wikileaks founder, editor-in-chief, spokesperson and Internet activist, Julian Assange, has been issued a red notice by Interpol on November 30, 2010.

WikiLeaks on ‘Red’ Notice

Whistleblower website WikiLeaks is on ‘red’ notice. Also, its founder, editor-in-chief, and spokesperson, Australian Internet activist, Julian Assange is wanted for two women’s alleged molestation and rape in Sweden. Interpol has issued him a ‘red notice’, the closest thing to an international warrant arrest. WikiLeaks, of which Assange is editor-in-chief, released on November 28, 2010 251, 287 information leaks on United States’ embassy cables, 15,652 of which are classified as ‘Secret’. The leaks point the spotlight on world leaders and United States’ diplomatic concerns. The site has been under cyber attack, being plummeted with distributed denial of service (DDOS), to prevent user accessibility of the site.

WikiLeaks Profile

International, non-profit, media organization Wikileaks was launched in 2006 and made its first Internet appearance on January 2007, when it announced its plans of releasing 1.2 million documents. The site cites its frontline interest in exposing regime oppression in Asia, Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the former Soviet bloc and to assist people in revealing corporation and government unethical conduct. It seeks to protect journalists and whistleblowers from prison for sending through electronic mail classified information. It has around 1,200 registered volunteers in June 2009. Its advisory board consists of Julian Assange, Ben Laurice, C.J. Hinke, Chico Whitaker, Phillip Adams, Tashi Namgyal Khamsitsang, Wang Dan, Wang Youcai, and Xiang Qiang. It currently has five full-time workers and eight hundred part-time workers, who all work for free. The organization has no official headquarters. Its central server is located in Sweden, where no administrative authority has the right to inquire about the sources of any newspaper. It uses military-grade encryption to secure confidential information and sources.

WikiLeaks Online Publishing Protocol

Originally, WikiLeaks online publishing protocol says contributors can post documents and files ‘anonymously and untraceably’. Public discussion and analysis of information’s context, credibility, and truthfulness are encouraged. Collective publication, contextual interpretations, and comprehensive explanations of leaks are allowed for both reader and writer users of the site. However, to prevent spamming and unscrupulous publication of confidential information, anonymous WikiLeaks’s reviewers reject documents deviating from its editorial policy ‘of political, diplomatic, historical, or ethical interest.’ Five reviewers study a contributor’s background, whose identity is known. These five reviewers are masters of fields in language or computer programming. Julian Assange has the final say regarding a document’s assessment. As of 2010, users are no longer allowed to post comments on leaks.

WikiLeaks Previous Online Published Classified Documents

WikiLeaks online published classified documents began with Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys signed document planning the assassination of government official in December 2006. It leaked information to British newspaper ‘The Guardian’ in 2007 about former Kenyan leader’s Daniel arap Moi’s family’s corruption. United States’ Army’s 2004 edition of Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp’s manual protocol was publicized in December 3, 2007. Its previous publication of the U.S. army’s 2003 Gitmo protocol revealed some Gitmo detainee’s unavailability to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which the United State’s military has several timed denied. During the 2008 campaigns for the presidential elections, Sarah Palin, who was then running for vice-presidency, was revealed to have used Yahoo’s private email account to send work-related electronic messages against public record policies. The site published in 2009 more than six hundred United Nations reports, of which sixty were classified as ‘strictly confidential and six thousand and seven hundred and eighty Congressional Research Service reports; eight-six telephone recordings of Peru’s businessmen and politicians related to the Petrogate Oil Scandal; and the ‘Minton Report, about toxic waste dumping in the Ivory Coast – United Nations report 108,000 people have been affected by the dumping of toxic wastage, some of which could cause harm at a distance, from which burns to the eyes, lungs, and skin, loss of consciousness, and death were among the results from ‘a significant release of hydrogen sulphide gas’.

WikiLeaks 2010 Online Published Classified Documents

WikiLeaks released a classified United States’ Department of Defense Counterintelligence Anaylysis report dating from March of 2008. It details America’s security concerns, plans of weeding out whistleblowers, and human rights violation in Gitmo. It released on April 2010 a secret video footage, titled ‘Collateral Murder’, of a United States’ helicopter attack in Baghdad, which led to twelve casualties. The helicopter pilots thought the men, whom they fired at and killed, carried weapons. Bradley Manning’s arrest, alleged to have leaked the ‘Collateral Murder’ video, followed the release of ‘Collateral Murder’. In July WikiLeaks published what Assange compared to ‘The Pentagon Papers’ – the Afghan War Diary. It also released the more than 92,000 documents to ‘The Guardian’, ‘The New York Times’, and ‘Der Speigel’. The Afghan War Diary is a compilation of documents on the war in Afghanistan from 2004 until 2009, including civilian deaths. 15,000 of the 92,000 war documents are still being extensively reviewed by WikiLeaks, to protect informants whose lives will be put at risk. WikiLeaks has also contacted the White House, before the war documents were released in July, to sift out whose names might cause any violation of the law of war. The White House was silent about it and did not respond. A spokesman of Taliban said the group has formed a commission to go over the war documents and find out who, among the 1,800 Afghans in their ‘Wanted List’, are in the documents WikiLeaks released.

WikiLeaks Released United States’ Classified Diplomatic Cables

WikiLeaks released on November 28, 2010 United States’ classified diplomatic cables. The cables show world leaders’ security interests and personalities. The leak consists of 251,287 documents from communications between 274 embassies worldwide, 15,652 of which are classified as ‘secret’. The leaks revealed United States’ machinations, employing pressure on Afghanistan hot spots; United States’, Saudi Arabia’s, and Israel’s growing fears of Iran’s nuclear program; United States’ concerns regarding Pakistan’s atomic weaponry; and United States’ stand on a united Korea to solve the aggression in North Korea. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia prodded the United States to launch an attack on Iran to destroy its nuclear program and discourage the Middle East country’s nuclear ambitions. Leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates considered Iran, evil. Bahrain’s and Jordan’s officials support any means that will put a permanent lid on Iran’s nuclear program. Furthermore, the documents reveal United States’ and South Korea’s discussion of North Korea’s collapse from economic troubles; United States’ measures of urging Pakistani officials to remove from its reactor highly enriched uranium; United States’ asking Slovenia to take America’s Gitmo detainees if its leader wants to meet President Barrack Obama; several million dollar offers to the Pacific Island of Kiribati to accept Gitmo detainees; a memo instructing United States’ diplomats to obtain United Nations officials’ credit card numbers, frequent flyer numbers, and passwords to the Internet. Two days before the diplomatic cables were released, Julian Assange sent a letter through his lawyer to the United States’ Department of State, to protect people who might be put at harm by the cables. Legal Adviser of the Department of State, Harold Koh retaliated, saying United States will not be involved in any negotiation on the distribution of United States’ classified documents, which were illegally obtained.

References:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/wikileaks-claims-website-is-under-cyber-attack-ahead-of-document-dump/story-e6frf7jx-1225962471762

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h15iHgSN_1Wh5wXeqZPwTXbZMr2A?docId=6b51fb022dd04c22a744b1fefef3b90f

December 19, 2010 - Posted by calvinhowell | Legal, New, News, Ready, Society | Julian Assange, Julian Assange Wanted for Rape, Red Notice, WikiLeaks, WikiLeaks 2010 Online Published Classified Documents, WikiLeaks on ‘Red’ Notice, WikiLeaks Online Publishing Protocol, WikiLeaks Previous Online Published Classified Documents, WikiLeaks Profile, WikiLeaks Released United States’ Classified Diplomatic Cables